Growing up on a farm, I was around all kinds of animals for my first 20 years. After a lot of trial and error, I learned two things. All animals, including humans, create a bubble of comfort around themselves. If you invade that bubble, an animal will resort to either flight or fight. I found, however, that if I did not make eye contact with an animal and if I acted as if I was going to walk by them, I could get inside that bubble of comfort and stay there as long as I made no threatening motion.
As a livestock photographer, those lessons have served me well. I used to do livestock advertising and catalog work for many years and am going back into that line of photography when I retire. Many of the cattle I worked with ranged from bulls that had spent most of their life in a show ring to some real high-headed individuals with limited human contact that needed little provocation. The same principles applied...no eye contact (unless behind a camera) and no challenging motion directly toward an animal. It works with all animals, wild, domestic or human. On Sunday 28 October 2001 08:30, you wrote: > About how to talk to critters... > > One thing you might want to try with the horses > is to sort of lean in towards their faces. I heard once > that they greet each other with their muzzles, so the last > couple of times I was at a stable, I kept my hands behind > my back and stuck my face at them. If you do that, they > might nuzzle your face, or at least snort at it. :) > > For dogs and cats, I usually find it's enough to crouch > down, hold your hand out to them and wait. If they're curious, > they'll come over to check you out. > > Hope this helps, > Amita -- Kenneth Archer + San Antonio, Texas [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ #24980801 Powered by Linux ++ Mailed by Kmail - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
